Safed on Being Out of a Job

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 54, 27 November 1926, Page 17

Safed on Being Out of a Job

AS I walked abroad, I beheld two Young men approaching me, and I saw that they spake to each other aside as they beheld me, and I fancied that they said, Behold, this old Philosopher cometh; let us make merry with him. And as they approached they bowed low, and I spake unto them, saying, Good Morrow; and I trust ye have Good News on. this fine day. And they said, Alas, thou Venerable Sage, we have sad news for thee. Thou art out of a Job. And they waited for this News to sink in, and 1 prepared my mind for what they were next to say. And they said, The Devil is dead. And I placed one of my two hands upon the shoulder of each of them,

and I said, I still have ample occupation. If the devil bd dead, I shall have need to care for you, his fatherless children. And they made no reply, but as they went on, I heard them say one to the other, The old Philosopher hath some kick in him, is it not so? But and if it were true, and the Devil were indeed dead, and no one were Ignorant and no one were Sick and no one were Sinful and no one were given to Folly, it would indeed be a better world, but it might be a Less Interesting one. Now I have considered that the Physician liveth by men’s Diseases, and the Chirurgcon by their Accidents, and the Lawyer by their Quarrels, and the Preacher by their Sins, and the Teacher by their Ignorance and I by their Folly, and there is no present prospect that any one of us will be out of a job.